DECOYS IN NORFOLK. 



175 



tiful and the place quiet, the " flappers " which have 

 collected in the decoy pond, are reluctant to leave for 

 the south, but in November and December the foreign 

 birds arrive, and it is during these months most of the 

 teal are taken. The wigeon here pass on early, and do 

 not occur in any numbers on their return journey until 

 early in March ; consequently, owing to the operation of 

 the Wild Birds Protection Act^ very few, as a rule, are 

 now captured. 



Some idea of the number of fowl killed in this 

 county in former times may be formed from Messrs. 

 Paget's statement that in the winter of 1829 one 

 game dealer, in Yarmouth, had in a single day " no 

 less than 400 wild-fowl of different kinds, 500 snipe, 

 and 150 golden plover," brought in for sale; and that 

 from the same district in ordinary years about fifty per 

 week, on an average, were sent to London through- 

 out the season, which generally lasts five months, viz., 

 from October to the beginning of March or April ! Even 

 in the present day a sharp winter brings a great influx 

 of fowl. Mr. Stevenson was indebted to Mr. Bellin, of 

 Yarmouth, for the following list of wild-fowl received by 

 one only of the game dealers in that town, between the 

 14th and 28th of December, 1878, when we were visited 

 by an exceptionally severe spell of weather : — 



Wildfowl, Waders, &c., received from December 

 14th to 21st, 1878. 



Full Snipe 447 



Jack Snipe 21 



Green and Golden Plover 20G 



Grey Plover 3 



Woodcocks 14 



Water-hens 41 



Rails 2 



Water Rails 17 



Coots 43 



Stints 133 



Owls 13 



Hawks (various) 4 



Grebes 9 



Curlews 2 



Herons 4 



Kingfishers 3 



Teal 35 



Golden-eyes and other 



fowl 147 



Duck and Mallard (220 



from Decoy) 421 



Great Plover 1 



Eared Grebe 1 



Rough-legged Buzzards 2 



Smews (male and female) 2 



Sundries 29 



1,600 



